Some self-help speakers love talking about self-esteem.
In the cult of self-esteem, all you need to do is feel better about yourself. Everything will be OK.
But the reality is sometimes you’re not very good at an activity. And if everyone ignores that, they’re not doing you any favors.
When I was growing up, my parents constantly told me, “You can do anything you want in life!”
They lied.
Oh, there’s some truth to it, but there are things I’m simply not cut out for.
I could never be a pro basketball player.
I’m short. I’m slow. And I’m not very good.
No one is going to be recruiting me for the Orlando Magic anytime soon.
I’m a horrible artist. I can’t sing and have no musical talents. My wife and I tried ballroom dancing and that didn’t work out too well either.
Maybe I could be OK at any of those things, but I’d never be great.
No one is going to pay me to do them.
Would you be surprised to learn that successful people often have lower self-esteem?
We’re not talking about garbage dumps level. If you hate yourself, you likely won’t even try. You’ll give up even when you’re good at something.
But successful people doubt themselves.
I’ve spoken to many people who are at the top of their game. They realize they have talent, but they back up that talent with almost insane practice. They’re often worried about when it could all come crashing down or when they’ll be ‘found out’ as not as good as people think they are.
That forces them to work harder.
They recruit experts, trainers, and coaches to help them identify and optimize their skills.
They have others who can speak into their lives and give them direction.
They’re constantly studying to improve their game.
Experience may be the best teacher, but it’s also the most expensive one.
My copywriting friends have probably all experienced writing copy for a client, only to have that copy edited by the business owner’s spouse, friend, or English teacher.
Their work was destroyed and the persuasion was gone.
Someone had some pretty good self-esteem…and it made them over-confident in a topic they had no business being involved in.
I’ve consulted with clients where they broke down in tears before.
I wasn’t being mean. I was telling them the brutal truth. What they had planned wasn’t going to work. If they wanted to succeed, they had to do it a different way.
It would have been evil to pat them on the back and congratulate them right before they dive headlong into a major failure.
Self-esteem can be good. You have talents. Hopefully you’re using them. You have weaknesses to. You can outsource those others.
Success online isn’t about how awesome you are personally. I’ve seen awesome people fail while the average Joes and Janes clean up online.
It’s about following systems that are proven to work.
That’s why I push my Autoresponder Alchemy course so hard.
If you don’t have it, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage online. It gives you the systems my clients and I have used to turn email into our secret weapon.
Online marketing doesn’t have to be difficult.
Find an audience. Get them on a list. Build a relationship with them. Make offers.
I cover all of those in this course…
